When shopping and leisure go together in malls. User experiences in Barcelona

Abstract

The presence of shopping malls where people consume and practice leisure has increased in recent decades. Given the importance of shopping malls for both consumption and leisure, and the lack of studies that explain these behaviors in our context, this study describes the activities accomplished and the experience of visiting shopping centers in Barcelona. The participants were 411 men and 379 women aged between 16 and 56 (M = 35.87, SD = 9.74); information was collected with a questionnaire, which included items about activities, frequency of attendance, and evaluations of visiting the mall. The results offer a characterization of Barcelona's shopping-center users (by gender, age, what they do there, and how malls are experienced), and add to the discussion about shopping centers as placed-based leisure settings.